Report: 64,000 Saudis joined labour market within two months

The Saudi Ministry of Labour said more than 64,000 Saudi men and women joined the labour market during the months of September and October, 2017.

The ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that the number of Saudis in the labour market amounted to 1.949 million Saudis by the end of October compared with 1.844 million in September.

According to the ministry, 33,000 Saudi women and 31,000 Saudi men joined the labour market during the aforementioned period.

The Kingdom aims through its National Transformation plan, the main component in its Vision 2030, to reduce the unemployment rate among its citizens to 9 per cent by 2020 and to 7 per cent by 2030 through.

Earlier this year, the Kingdom began a program to increase women involvement in several economic sectors.

The National Transformation Plan aims to provide 1.2 million jobs to Saudi citizens by 2020.

The Saudi measures and plans come as unemployment rate rises among Saudis to reach 12.8 per cent at the end of the second quarter of 2017 compared to 12.7 per cent in the previous quarter.